Published by De Gruyter

Volume 7 Issue 1-2 - Optical Coatings / Guest Editors: Norbert Kaiser, Zhanshan Wang

Issue of Advanced Optical Technologies

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available April 4, 2018

Editorial

March 23, 2018

Reviewer recognition and editor’s note

Andreas Thoss, Michael Pfeffer

Page range: 1-4

Community

March 22, 2018

Topical Issue: Optical Coatings

Editorial

March 27, 2018

Special issue on optical coatings

Norbert Kaiser, Zhanshan Wang

Page range: 11-12

Review Article

Publicly Available March 21, 2018

Simulation of the optical coating deposition

Fedor Grigoriev, Vladimir Sulimov, Alexander Tikhonravov

Page range: 13-22

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Abstract

A brief review of the mathematical methods of thin-film growth simulation and results of their applications is presented. Both full-atomistic and multi-scale approaches that were used in the studies of thin-film deposition are considered. The results of the structural parameter simulation including density profiles, roughness, porosity, point defect concentration, and others are discussed. The application of the quantum level methods to the simulation of the thin-film electronic and optical properties is considered. Special attention is paid to the simulation of the silicon dioxide thin films.

Research Articles

March 21, 2018

ALD anti-reflection coatings at 1ω, 2ω, 3ω, and 4ω for high-power ns-laser application

Hao Liu, Lars Jensen, Ping Ma, Detlev Ristau

Page range: 23-31

Abstract

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) facilitates the deposition of coatings with precise thickness, high surface conformity, structural uniformity, and nodular-free structure, which are properties desired in high-power laser coatings. ALD was studied to produce uniform and stable Al 2 O 3 and HfO 2 single layers and was employed to produce anti-reflection coatings for the harmonics (1ω, 2ω, 3ω, and 4ω) of the Nd:YAG laser. In order to qualify the ALD films for high-power laser applications, the band gap energy, absorption, and element content of single layers were characterized. The damage tests of anti-reflection coatings were carried out with a laser system operated at 1ω, 2ω, 3ω, and 4ω, respectively. The damage mechanism was discussed by analyzing the damage morphology and electric field intensity difference. ALD coatings exhibit stable growth rates, low absorption, and rather high laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT). The LIDT is limited by HfO 2 as the employed high-index material. These properties indicate the high versatility of ALD films for applications in high-power coatings.

March 14, 2018

Determination of refractive index and thickness of YbF₃ thin films deposited at different bias voltages of APS ion source from spectrophotometric methods

Yinhua Zhang, Shengming Xiong, Wei Huang, Kepeng Zhang

Page range: 33-37

Abstract

Ytterbium fluoride (YbF 3 ) single thin films were prepared on sapphire and monocrystalline silicon substrates through conventional thermal evaporation and ion beam-assisted deposition (IAD), at bias voltages ranging from 50 to 160 V of the Leybold advanced plasma source (APS). By using the Cauchy dispersion model, the refractive index and thickness of the YbF 3 thin films were obtained by fitting the 400–2500 nm transmittance of the monolayer YbF 3 thin films on the sapphire substrate. At the same time, the refractive index and thickness of the YbF 3 thin films on the monocrystalline silicon substrates were also measured using the VASE ellipsometer at wavelength from 400 to 2200 nm. The results showed that the refractive index deviation of the YbF 3 thin films between the fitted values by the transmittance spectra and the measured values by the VASE ellipsometer was <0.02 and the relative deviation of the thickness was <1%. Furthermore, the refractive index of the YbF 3 thin films increased with increasing APS bias voltage. The conventional YbF 3 thin films and the IAD thin films deposited at low bias voltage revealed a negative inhomogeneity, and a higher bias voltage is beneficial for improving the homogeneity of YbF 3 thin films.

March 15, 2018

Effects of fixture rotation on coating uniformity for high-performance optical filter fabrication

Binyamin Rubin, Jason George, Riju Singhal

Page range: 39-47

Abstract

Coating uniformity is critical in fabricating high-performance optical filters by various vacuum deposition methods. Simple and planetary rotation systems with shadow masks are used to achieve the required uniformity [J. B. Oliver and D. Talbot, Appl. Optics 45, 13, 3097 (2006); O. Lyngnes, K. Kraus, A. Ode and T. Erguder, in ‘Method for Designing Coating Thickness Uniformity Shadow Masks for Deposition Systems with a Planetary Fixture’, 2014 Technical Conference Proceedings, Optical Coatings, August 13, 2014, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14332/svc14.proc.1817.]. In this work, we discuss the effect of rotation pattern and speed on thickness uniformity in an ion beam sputter deposition system. Numerical modeling is used to determine statistical distribution of random thickness errors in coating layers. The relationship between thickness tolerance and production yield are simulated theoretically and demonstrated experimentally. Production yields for different optical filters produced in an ion beam deposition system with planetary rotation are presented. Single-wavelength and broadband optical monitoring systems were used for endpoint monitoring during filter deposition. Limitations of thickness tolerances that can be achieved in systems with planetary rotation are shown. Paths for improving production yield in an ion beam deposition system are described.

March 21, 2018

Design and manufacture of super-multilayer optical filters based on PARMS technology

Shaobo Lü, Ruisheng Wang, Jing Ma, Chao Jiang, Jiali Mu, Shuaifeng Zhao, Xiaojun Yin

Page range: 49-55

Abstract

Three multilayer interference optical filters, including a UV band-pass, a VIS dual-band-pass and a notch filter, were designed by using Ta 2 O 5 , Nb 2 O 5 , Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 as high- and low-index materials. During the design of the coating process, a hybrid optical monitoring and RATE-controlled layer thickness control scheme was adopted. The coating process was simulated by using the optical monitoring system (OMS) Simulator, and the simulation result indicated that the layer thickness can be controlled within an error of less than ±0.1%. The three filters were manufactured on a plasma-assisted reactive magnetic sputtering (PARMS) coating machine. The measurements indicate that for the UV band-pass filter, the peak transmittance is higher than 95% and the blocking density is better than OD6 in the 300–1100 nm region, whereas for the dual-band-pass filter, the center wavelength positioning accuracy of the two passbands are less than ±2 nm, the peak transmittance is higher than 95% and blocking density is better than OD6 in the 300–950 nm region. Finally, for the notch filter, the minimum transmittance rates are >90% and >94% in the visible and near infrared, respectively, and the blocking density is better than OD5.5 at 808 nm.

Tutorial

March 24, 2018

Monolithic photonic integration for visible and short near-infrared wavelengths: technologies and platforms for bio and life science applications

Marco A.G. Porcel, Iñigo Artundo, J. David Domenech, Douwe Geuzebroek, Rino Sunarto, Romano Hoofman

Page range: 57-65

Abstract

This tutorial aims to provide a general overview on the state-of-the-art of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in the visible and short near-infrared (NIR) wavelength ranges, mostly focusing in silicon nitride (SiN) substrates, and a guide to the necessary steps in the design toward the fabrication of such PICs. The focus is put on bio- and life sciences, given the adequacy and, thus, a large number of applications in this field.

Review Articles

March 22, 2018

Optimization of freeform surfaces using intelligent deformation techniques for LED applications

Annie Shalom Isaac, Cornelius Neumann

Page range: 67-80

Abstract

For many years, optical designers have great interests in designing efficient optimization algorithms to bring significant improvement to their initial design. However, the optimization is limited due to a large number of parameters present in the Non-uniform Rationaly b-Spline Surfaces. This limitation was overcome by an indirect technique known as optimization using freeform deformation (FFD). In this approach, the optical surface is placed inside a cubical grid. The vertices of this grid are modified, which deforms the underlying optical surface during the optimization. One of the challenges in this technique is the selection of appropriate vertices of the cubical grid. This is because these vertices share no relationship with the optical performance. When irrelevant vertices are selected, the computational complexity increases. Moreover, the surfaces created by them are not always feasible to manufacture, which is the same problem faced in any optimization technique while creating freeform surfaces. Therefore, this research addresses these two important issues and provides feasible design techniques to solve them. Finally, the proposed techniques are validated using two different illumination examples: street lighting lens and stop lamp for automobiles.

January 18, 2018

On-chip photonic microsystem for optical signal processing based on silicon and silicon nitride platforms

Yu Li, Jiachen Li, Hongchen Yu, Hai Yu, Hongwei Chen, Sigang Yang, Minghua Chen

Page range: 81-101

Abstract

The explosive growth of data centers, cloud computing and various smart devices is limited by the current state of microelectronics, both in terms of speed and heat generation. Benefiting from the large bandwidth, promising low power consumption and passive calculation capability, experts believe that the integrated photonics-based signal processing and transmission technologies can break the bottleneck of microelectronics technology. In recent years, integrated photonics has become increasingly reliable and access to the advanced fabrication process has been offered by various foundries. In this paper, we review our recent works on the integrated optical signal processing system. We study three different kinds of on-chip signal processors and use these devices to build microsystems for the fields of microwave photonics, optical communications and spectrum sensing. The microwave photonics front receiver was demonstrated with a signal processing range of a full-band (L-band to W-band). A fully integrated microwave photonics transceiver without the on-chip laser was realized on silicon photonics covering the signal frequency of up 10 GHz. An all-optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) de-multiplier was also demonstrated and used for an OFDM communication system with the rate of 64 Gbps. Finally, we show our work on the monolithic integrated spectrometer with a high resolution of about 20 pm at the central wavelength of 1550 nm. These proposed on-chip signal processing systems potential applications in the fields of radar, 5G wireless communication, wearable devices and optical access networks.

Letter

January 6, 2018

On-chip Mach-Zehnder interferometer for OCT systems

Ton G. van Leeuwen, Imran B. Akca, Nikolaos Angelou, Nicolas Weiss, Marcel Hoekman, Arne Leinse, Rene G. Heideman

Page range: 103-106

Abstract

By using integrated optics, it is possible to reduce the size and cost of a bulky optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. One of the OCT components that can be implemented on-chip is the interferometer. In this work, we present the design and characterization of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer consisting of the wavelength-independent splitters and an on-chip reference arm. The Si 3 N 4 was chosen as the material platform as it can provide low losses while keeping the device size small. The device was characterized by using a home-built swept source OCT system. A sensitivity value of 83 dB, an axial resolution of 15.2 μm (in air) and a depth range of 2.5 mm (in air) were all obtained.

Research Article

February 21, 2018

Broadband and scalable optical coupling for silicon photonics using polymer waveguides

Antonio La Porta, Jonas Weiss, Roger Dangel, Daniel Jubin, Norbert Meier, Folkert Horst, Bert Jan Offrein

Page range: 107-113

Abstract

We present optical coupling schemes for silicon integrated photonics circuits that account for the challenges in large-scale data processing systems such as those used for emerging big data workloads. Our waveguide based approach allows to optimally exploit the on-chip optical feature size, and chip- and package real-estate. It further scales well to high numbers of channels and is compatible with state-of-the-art flip-chip die packaging. We demonstrate silicon waveguide to polymer waveguide coupling losses below 1.5 dB for both the O- and C-bands with a polarisation dependent loss of <1 dB. Over 100 optical silicon waveguide to polymer waveguide interfaces were assembled within a single alignment step, resulting in a physical I/O channel density of up to 13 waveguides per millimetre along the chip-edge, with an average coupling loss of below 3.4 dB measured at 1310 nm.

About this journal

Objective

Advanced Optical Technologies is a strictly peer-reviewed scientific journal. The major aim of Advanced Optical Technologies is to publish recent progress in the fields of optical design, optical engineering, and optical manufacturing. Advanced Optical Technologies has a main focus on applied research and addresses scientists as well as experts in industrial research and development.

Advanced Optical Technologies partners with the European Optical Society (EOS). All its 4.500+ members have free online access to the journal through their EOS member account.

Topics

Optical design
Lithography
Opto-mechanical engineering
Illumination and lighting technology
Precision fabrication
Image sensor devices
Optical materials (polymer based, inorganic, crystalline/amorphous)
Optical instruments in life science (biology, medicine, laboratories)
Optical metrology
Optics in aerospace/defense
Simulation, interdisciplinary
Optics for astronomy
Standards
Consumer optics
Optical coatings

Article formats
Tutorial, Review Article, Research Article, Letter, Short Communication, Views

> Information on submission process

Volume 7 Issue 1-2 - Optical Coatings / Guest Editors: Norbert Kaiser, Zhanshan Wang

Issue of Advanced Optical Technologies

Cover and Frontmatter

Reviewer recognition and editor’s note

News

Editorial

Special issue on optical coatings

Review Article

Simulation of the optical coating deposition

Abstract

Research Articles

ALD anti-reflection coatings at 1ω, 2ω, 3ω, and 4ω for high-power ns-laser application

Abstract

Determination of refractive index and thickness of YbF₃ thin films deposited at different bias voltages of APS ion source from spectrophotometric methods

Abstract

Effects of fixture rotation on coating uniformity for high-performance optical filter fabrication

Abstract

Design and manufacture of super-multilayer optical filters based on PARMS technology

Abstract

Monolithic photonic integration for visible and short near-infrared wavelengths: technologies and platforms for bio and life science applications

Abstract

Optimization of freeform surfaces using intelligent deformation techniques for LED applications

Abstract

On-chip photonic microsystem for optical signal processing based on silicon and silicon nitride platforms

Abstract

On-chip Mach-Zehnder interferometer for OCT systems

Abstract

Broadband and scalable optical coupling for silicon photonics using polymer waveguides

Abstract

Volume 7 Issue 1-2 - Optical Coatings / Guest Editors: Norbert Kaiser, Zhanshan Wang

Issue of Advanced Optical Technologies

Cover and Frontmatter

Reviewer recognition and editor’s note

News

Special issue on optical coatings

Simulation of the optical coating deposition

Abstract

ALD anti-reflection coatings at 1ω, 2ω, 3ω, and 4ω for high-power ns-laser application

Abstract

Determination of refractive index and thickness of YbF3 thin films deposited at different bias voltages of APS ion source from spectrophotometric methods

Abstract

Effects of fixture rotation on coating uniformity for high-performance optical filter fabrication

Abstract

Design and manufacture of super-multilayer optical filters based on PARMS technology

Abstract

Monolithic photonic integration for visible and short near-infrared wavelengths: technologies and platforms for bio and life science applications

Abstract

Optimization of freeform surfaces using intelligent deformation techniques for LED applications

Abstract

On-chip photonic microsystem for optical signal processing based on silicon and silicon nitride platforms

Abstract

On-chip Mach-Zehnder interferometer for OCT systems

Abstract

Broadband and scalable optical coupling for silicon photonics using polymer waveguides

Abstract

Determination of refractive index and thickness of YbF₃ thin films deposited at different bias voltages of APS ion source from spectrophotometric methods